Pearl City's Tasha Inong traps the ball against Kahuku. Sylvia Lee | SL

×

012114_SL-GSOC-PC_KAH-9231.jpg - Sylvia Lee | SL

Purchase this image
4x5 5x7 8x10 image download

Pearl City blanked Kahuku, 3-0 in the first round of the O'ahu Interscholatstic Association Red playoffs at Aiea High School on Tuesday afternoon. Both teams came into the playoffs with big victories over their opponents last week as Pearl City defeated Waianae, 7-1 while Kahuku routed Farrington, 7-0. The Chargers improve to 7-4 while the Red Raiders end their season at 8-3.

Pearl City, the fourth seed from the West, will travel to Campbell, who the West's number one seed, on Wednesday Jan. 22 at 6:30 pm. Pearl City lost to Campbell, 2-1 earlier on Jan. 10.

"As long as we play together, we can be competitive. We lost to Campbell in a shoot-out the first time and we scored first on them. We got to take it to them and not wait for them to do something, we got to do it first," said Pearl City coach Frank Baumholtz III.

"I think we improved since playing Campbell and we're playing together," said sophomore fullback Kylie Louis.

"We only lost where we got blown out and the other games where we lost by one goal. We've been working hard to connect our passes and following through after stringing them together. We have to keep connecting those short passes and some looked like really good passing and those through balls, we have to emphasize those," said Baumholtz III.

Pearl City set the tone and was on the attack early. Prior to the one minute mark, Cailla Fabro's attempt went to the right of the goal.

At the 10th minute, Kylie Louis got the Chargers on the scoreboard first after she took a pass from Randi Fontes and kicked a grounder past Kahuku goalie Carrie Kamakaala to take a 1-0 lead.

"I heard my coach yelling to get up and they passed it to me so I just kicked it in the direction of the goal. I just happened to be there at the right time and we tried to play more with our forwards," said Louis.

Pearl City goalkeeper Ariella Bali had a save in the 40th minute to prevent Kahuku from tying the game at 1.

"She played pretty good. She didn't have too many line drive shots at her, most of them were bouncing balls that were really dangerous which was to her advantage," said Baumholtz III, on Bali.

The Chargers were aggressive and got into Kahuku territory on multiple occasions in the first half. In the second half, they continued to apply pressure on Kahuku's defense.  

Kahuku got into Pearl City territory and had some scoring opportunities of their own. However, the Charger defense stepped up and managed to kick it away.

"They kept booming the ball and the hardest thing is when they boom it like that, they're taller than we are. Instead of cleaning the ball, we let the ball hit our bodies and it runs up in the air and now you got a girl who's 5 foot 7 running into your face. That's very, very dangerous so hopefully we don't do that tomorrow," said Baumholtz III, on Kahuku's scoring opportunities in their side of the field.

"I was trying to encourage my teammates on defense and tell them to get the ball up and to body up," said Fabro.

In the 51st minute, Pearl City senior forward Tasha Inong set up a goal as she passed it to sophomore forward Cailla Fabro who tapped it in from the right side to put the Chargers up 2-0.

"I just thought my intensity wasn't as high as it could've been. My mind was set to score from the beginning of the game. Once I get the ball, I try my best to score," said Fabro.

Two minutes later, sophomore halfback Haley Honda added another goal in traffic to give Pearl City a commanding 3-0 lead and the Chargers never looked back.

Pearl City had another chance to extend the lead in the 68th minute, but Fontes' attempt ricocheted off the top goal post.